Rugged, high-performance headset and handset assembly cords are manufactured with a polyurethane jacket and may be customised with appropriate contacts and connectors.

Whitney Blake Company offers fully connectorised communication cords for use in military applications. These rugged, high-performance headset and handset assembly cords are manufactured with a polyurethane jacket and may be customised with appropriate contacts and connectors. Whitney Blake’s communication cords can be used in headsets, radio telephone handsets and other communication equipment, such as vehicle intercom systems and tactical radio systems.

Whitney Blake’s communication cords are also well suited for utility and field site applications and may be enhanced with custom overmoulding.

The length and flexibility of the cords gives users a greater range of motion, needed in demanding environments, and the durability of the cords is designed to withstand the harshest conditions.

Additionally, Whitney Blake custom designs cords to meet specific end user demands for use in a variety of settings.

Custom-made mechanical line cords meet wide-ranging power application requirements.

Tyco Electronics now offers a line of custom-made mechanical line cords (MLCs) to meet customers’ power application requirements. These specialty cables are made to customers’ extensive specifications and are intended to provide power for servers, mass storage devices, and other similar customer applications. These cable assemblies are generally rated from 10 to 60A and up to 300V.

‘Tyco Electronics’ mechanical line cords are extremely rugged and can be provided with ‘make-first, break-last’ (MFBL) contact arrangement for safety requirements’, comments Jim McLaughlin, Global Product Manager, Tyco Electronics Cable Assemblies.

Fujikura Europe has released a new high density optical fibre cable: AirLight for micro duct installations.

Fujikura Europe has released a new high density optical fibre cable: AirLight for micro duct installations. Specifically designed for micro-duct cabling within existing or new ducting systems it is ideally suitable for air blown technology applications using compressed and dry air. ‘AirLight is a lightweight (approximately 30kg/km), compact high-density fibre optic cable (approximately 6mm diameter for a 72 fibre cable) and under trial testing it has been blown 2600m into a 10/8mm micro-duct in just 71 minutes’, says Roy Higgins, General Manager at Fujikura Europe.

‘This is the longest blowing distance achieved at the test track, we believe’.

As demand increases for products suitable for local information networks, CATV and FTTx applications, so too is the challenge of deploying fibre in constrained network environments.

To reduce the cost of access for FTTx network installations, the primary consideration is to efficiently use the existing duct infrastructure.

‘Customers are looking for solutions to real world problems’, adds Higgins.

‘With our new AirLight cable we can maximise capacity and minimise expenditure.

Compared with a conventional cable (say one 288 fibre loose tube cable) a micro-duct installation has the capacity of 360 fibres (five 10/8 micro-duct with five 72 fibre AirLight cables) and far more flexibility’.

‘Fujikura has developed a vast array of additional FTTx fibre optic products, many of which have become tried and trusted in the Japanese market where FTTH has already started in anger and which are now available for the just-starting European FTTx market’, concludes Higgins.

There is more to RoHS than compliance and exemption, writes Terry McManus of Tekdata Interconnections.

Anyone in the electronics industry should be aware of the passing of the July 2006 deadline for the implementation of the European RoHS directive on the use of hazardous substances, and the ancillary WEEE regulations covering disposal of waste. The last few months have seen companies working feverishly to establish whether they are covered by the directive, or exempt from its provisions: and, if they do need to comply, how to go about it. But it is becoming increasingly clear that exemption and compliance are not the only issues.

Just as manufacturers who move to compliance need to maximise the yields of new manufacturing processes, so those who are staying with established technologies will have to deal with issues such as finding reliable and verifiable sources of exempt components and materials.

This may not be as easy as it sounds: ‘non-RoHS’ components with terminations made with lead are already commanding a price premium.

The EU regulations attempt to reduce the environmental impact of disposing of products at the end of their lifetime, by restricting the use of six substances at the manufacturing stage: lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls and polybrominated diphenyl ethers.

A complete ban on these substances is, of course, impractical.

The Directive therefore sets out limits on the weight-for-weight%age of the substances usable in any end product.

They also specify a list of industries - such as telecommunications infrastructure and the military - which do not need to comply, and a corresponding raft of specific end products.

For example, CRT manufacturers can continue to use glass that contains lead.

Although no-one seems terribly certain where the list of substances originated, there is little doubt that the one that has caused most consternation and debate for the electronics industry is lead, largely because of its formerly ubiquitous presence in solder processes and materials.

Eliminating lead throws up a series of difficulties.

For a start, alternative metal alloys used for soldering behave differently to conventional solders.

This means requalification and in some cases complete redesign, if the physical layout of a PCB is not conducive to good soldering results using the new process.

Much of the problem is caused by the fact that new alloys have a higher melting point than traditional tin-lead.

In some cases this may require investment in new production machinery able to hit the required temperatures.

There remains an increased possibility of consequent heat damage to components.

Nor are circuit board materials immune to this effect: even if they are not physically damaged, production engineers need to establish the materials’ mechanical and thermal stability under the new conditions.

Military, aerospace and telecommunications manufacturers secured RoHS exemption partly on the basis that, as a relatively new technology, insufficient evidence existed about the long-term reliability of lead-free soldering.

Although many of these fears have recently been allayed as a fund of process expertise and reliability data has built up, many experts point out that there is no getting away from the fact that pure tin joints are mechanically less strong than their traditional tin-lead predecessors.

Concerns also remain about a number of phenomena associated with the use of pure tin solder coatings.

In particular, they tend to form tin whiskers, filamentous growths that appear spontaneously, and are prone to breaking off and causing short circuits between exposed contacts.

Pure tin is also prone to solder-balling and intermetallic formation: and component tombstoning, caused by unequal stresses within soldered joints, can also be a challenge during reflow of lead-free components.

It might seem that RoHS exemption is a ready solution to all of these problems.

But even exempt manufacturers need to be cautious.

We have already noted that non-RoHS components are in short supply and therefore more expensive.

Then there is the problem of differentiating between lead-based and lead-free parts.

Component manufacturers and distributors will undoubtedly be supplying both types, and the simple practical problem of telling them apart will only worsen as compliance becomes the norm rather than the exception.

There will be a specific challenge presented to companies which supply into both RoHS compliant businesses and into sectors which are exempt.

They will need to establish robust controls to segregate materials and processes in order to eliminate the risk of contamination.

For the exempt manufacturer, there may eventually be little alternative in the effort to ensure acceptable quality than to test the metallurgy of all incoming components.

The two types are visually virtually indistinguishable, and problems are likely to show up only when field failures occur.

Looking even further down the line, some providers are certain to discontinue the supply of lead-based components as volumes go down, leaving OEMs to rely on last-time buys, the grey market, or their own stocks of components.

Perhaps the final challenge is the human one.

In the light of RoHS, people have to change their behaviour and the processes they use; at the inspection stage, solder joints will look different, and people will need to learn about the change.

The good news is that many of the problems appear not to be as severe as was first thought.

The industry has now overcome the fear factor, and applied itself to getting on with the job in hand.

B3 Cable Solutions has signed Greenwoods Communications as a distributor.

B3 Cable Solutions (B3) and Greenwoods Communications have signed a strategic business partnership establishing Greenwoods Communications as distributor of B3’s approved internal/central office telecommunications cables. B3 is the only manufacturer and supplier of copper cables to have had its products approved by BT, for use in the BT networks. Greenwoods Communications is one of the UK’s leading independent providers of customer solutions for network operators and OEMs.

With the partnership in place, Greenwoods will hold inventory of B3’s comprehensive range of BT-approved copper cables.

This will ensure Greenwoods can reliably supply its customers with the widest range of high quality cabling.

Mark Williams, Sales Director of B3 Cable Solutions, explains the thinking behind the partnership: ‘B3 will continue to supply and service the major UK telcos directly’.

‘Using Greenwoods’ to distribute our copper cables will open up our product set to a significantly wider section of the UK market, and will increase the deployment of BT approved copper cables’.

‘This is particularly important with the impending roll-out of the BT 21CN network’.

Both B3 and Greenwoods Communications have built enviable reputations for supplying quality products, and delivering into customer-led solutions.

As a result, there is strong synergy between the two companies, and this, combined with the company’s complementary products and service set, will ensure that the partnership will deliver real added value to Greenwoods’ distribution channels, customers and OEMs.

Peter Skinner, Commercial Director at Greenwoods Communications explains how the partnership will benefit customers: ‘This agreement means that Greenwoods will be able to offer the highest quality cable at competitive prices to carriers, operators and OEMs in the UK and ensure that they can count on the availability of high quality cable products’.

A flexible high-quality cable harness service addresses the needs of OEMs in high-reliability arenas such as aerospace.

Harwin is offering a flexible, high-quality cable harness service addressing the needs of OEMs in high-reliability arenas such as aerospace. Providing convenience and a guarantee of quality, Harwin - a well-established supplier of connectors to the electronics industry - works closely with engineers to help them address any demanding requirements in their application. One important capability is high-specification crimping, allowing customers to out-source this often complicated and time-consuming process.

Samples and prototypes can be prepared quickly.

The flexible assembly service supports the requirements of OEMs in sectors such as military, aerospace, medical and industrial controls.

Recent customers include Weston Geco, Smiths Group and BAE Systems Rokar.

Cable harnesses can be developed for applications such as aircraft control panels, undersea exploration equipment and military communication systems.

For BAE Systems Rokar, they were used in a system for improving aircraft readiness by performing fast and reliable flight line safety checks of the countermeasures dispenser system.

Harwin’s cable assembly service focuses on its high-reliability Datamate interconnect range.

However, Datamate cable assemblies can also include components from other manufacturers.

Tekdata Interconnection recently celebrated the success of its junior management team at its manufacturing facility based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent.

Tekdata Interconnection recently celebrated the success of its junior management team at its manufacturing facility based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. The four team leaders, Steve James, Karen Heath, Jenny Swindells and Steve McCarthy received awards from Ernie Edwards, Managing Director. They are the first group to successfully qualify as World Class Team Managers under the award offered by EMTA, one of the UK’s leading award bodies specialising in the Engineering Sector.

Supported by Paul Williams of the North Staffs Engineering Group Training Association, the team leaders were required to demonstrate their competence in a varied number of disciplines, ranging from maintaining activities to meet business requirements to understanding and involvement in the learning and development of their teams.

Tekdata Interconnection’s commitment to the long term development of its employees, coupled with the enthusiasm, drive and diligence shown by the team leaders has resulted in the successful completion of this prestigious award.